Currently, it is the pilots who regularly check during the flight that the meteorological conditions ahead do not present any hazard to the aircraft and, therefore, its passengers and crew members, given the trajectory followed by the aircraft. For this, on aircraft such as current airliners, the pilots (pilot and copilot) have an onboard meteorological radar that makes it possible to detect and predict the meteorological conditions that the aircraft risks encountering, such as, for example, areas with a high moisture concentration, areas of turbulence, etc.
Therefore, the information relating to these meteorological conditions transmitted by the radar is displayed via two navigation screens on the flight deck of the airliners, one dedicated to the pilot, the other dedicated to the copilot. This “weather” information represented on the navigation screen or screens is monitored and analyzed by the pilots and, depending on how hazardous it is, the trajectory of the aircraft may or may not be modified.
Moreover, these navigation screens handle not only the monitoring of the information relating to the meteorological conditions transmitted by the radar, but also the monitoring of other information, notably information relating to the following of terrain by the airplane, in particular its trajectory, the other airplanes located nearby, airports, etc.
However, hitherto, the navigation screens could not simultaneously display both the “weather” information and the “terrain” information, so that the pilot had to make a choice according to the flight phases and conditions as to whether to monitor the required information as a priority. On airliners with two navigation screens, the pilot and the copilot share the monitoring task, the pilot monitoring the terrain information on his dedicated screen and the copilot monitoring the weather information on his dedicated screen, so that, for example, the threat of predictable bad weather conditions detected by the radar is viewed by the copilot, who then, with the pilot, takes appropriate decisions to avoid the threat.
However, it happens that, in certain situations, the pilot and the copilot both monitor the information relating to the following of terrain on their respective navigation screens, which no longer at this moment display the information relating to the meteorological conditions. So, if the radar, which is always operating even if the weather information is not displayed, detects a weather hazard on the trajectory of the airplane, the pilots will not be warned thereof and the airplane will enter into the area of disturbance, risking an unstable trajectory that is difficult to control and can lead to serious consequences for the passengers and crew members.
The aim of the present invention is to remedy this drawback.
To this end, the method for monitoring the flight of an aircraft using at least one navigation screen, of the type consisting in displaying on said screen, depending on the choice of a pilot, information relating to the following of terrain, notably the trajectory, by said aircraft or information relating to the meteorological conditions that the aircraft is likely to encounter during its flight and that is supplied by a meteorological radar on board said aircraft, is noteworthy, according to the invention, in that it further consists in triggering at least one warning representative of hazardous meteorological conditions detected by said radar and liable to be encountered by said aircraft, although said navigation screen is displaying the terrain-following information.